1990/02/01 by Thomas Hammarberg · 2 citations
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Global Peace and Security Dynamics #Health and Conflict Studies #Human Rights and Development
paper · doi:10.2307/762167
openalex publication_date 1990/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
When famine spreads die first. Diarrhoea is the worst killer in spite of available knowledge and means to control it. In poorer nations some twelve million die every year because they do not have vaccines or sufficient food. They are deprived of the most fundamental of all human rights-- the right to live. It is our who pay the heaviest price for our shortsighted economic policies our political blunders our wars. So said Eglantyne Jebb the British pioneer for childrens rights some seventy years ago when starting her campaign for better protection of the worlds children. Her voice was heard. She was arrested for obscenity when she displayed pictures of starving damaged by the war in other parts of Europe. But people rallied to her support and the Save the Children movement was formed. This new international movement drafted the Declaration of Geneva adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1924. The step had been taken towards international norms for the protection of children. The Declaration contained five principles which were general but to the point. One was that should be the to receive relief in emergencies. From then on children first became a fundamental point in the struggle for the rights of the child. (excerpt)